Many in the Bay Area woke up Wednesday bracing for what could be an extended government shutdown that began overnight, spurred by a deadlock on spending bills in the Senate.
Already, the effects are being felt.
When the shutdown started at 12:01 a.m., thousands of the region’s federal workers were furloughed and many government services ground to a halt.
MT Snyder, a San Francisco-based federal worker and member of the city’s union chapter representing employees at the National Labor Relations Board, woke up suspended from her job, per the board’s shutdown contingency plan. After going into work to set an out-of-office email response and cancel all upcoming appointments on her calendar, she said, she was no longer permitted to work.
For the NLRB, which ensures that private sector workers are able to unionize in line with the National Labor Relations Act, the shutdown means all pending votes and negotiations for workers going through the unionization process in San Francisco will be put on hold.
“All of the workers right now who have come to the National Labor Relations Board and said, ‘Hey, we want to have an election, we want to vote on whether or not to have the union’ — none of those elections can happen,” she told KQED.
Additionally, any local workers who believe that their employer has violated the NLRA won’t be able to request an investigation and support from the board.
“If a worker says, ‘I was fired for unionizing,’ they come to us … they file a complaint and then the board investigates and can get a remedy for them, can ensure that their rights are upheld,” she said. “There is no other place for them to go if we’re shut down.”
Many other agencies halted operations that weren’t deemed “essential,” in line with contingency plans they all have for lapses in federal appropriations.
Across the Bay Area, national parks that can be blocked from public access, such as Muir Woods, are closed, and 9,000 parks employees have been furloughed.
Alcatraz and Fort Point are open, while some bathrooms are locked. Ocean, Stinson and Muir beaches — all part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area — are accessible and have open bathrooms, but their public parking lots are shuttered.
NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View has also ceased most operations, according to Jonas Dino, president of the Ames Federal Employees Union, though certain employees are exempt and will continue working, including those in safety, cybersecurity and any mission-critical operations.
“We are trying to provide our members with as much [information] for resources like shutdown assistance loans with the SRI Federal Credit Union and union activities,” he said.
The Air National Guard facility at Moffett Field remains open and “fully operational,” according to Jeffrey Nelan, deputy communications director for the California Military Department. He noted that personnel continue to carry out duties.
Although the Moffett Field Museum is privately funded and also remains open, confusion over the government shutdown is likely to hurt business, executive director Jeff Wasel said. In previous shutdowns, people have assumed the museum was closed, he said.
“Shutdowns [are] kind of double-edged swords in that sense,” he said. “We do, at the beginning, suffer a little bit of a downturn, but sometimes that downturn [has been] made up by government employees that have spare time to come in and visit the museum.”
He is expecting a 20% to 30% decline in revenues while the shutdown is in effect.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service will continue weather forecasting, emergency responses and some satellite operations, but tours, most research and other services deemed unessential, like fishery monitoring, survey work and stock assessment, will cease.
NOAA said it also won’t regularly update its social media pages, which people often check during weather emergencies.
“NOAA is unable to respond to emails or voicemails that are not mission-critical,” the communications office said Wednesday.
The Environmental Protection Agency is operating similarly, pausing most research and issuance of new grants, permits, guidance and regulations.
While the effects of paused “non-essential” work might not be felt right away, they could become more obvious if the shutdown drags on, which Rep. Mark DeSaulnier said is likely.
Speaking on KQED’s Forum on Wednesday morning, the East Bay Democrat said he was prepared for a shutdown that rivaled the record 35-day lapse in appropriations during President Trump’s first term.
“It’s going to be painful,” he said.
Depending on just how long it lasts, more services that are still operating as of Oct. 1 could also face disruptions.
CalFresh, California’s iteration of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, has enough funding to continue providing food stamps to residents who qualify for about a month, according to DeSaulnier.
Federal courts have enough money to continue paying for operations for a little over two weeks, according to the judiciary. After that, they will continue to operate under the Anti-Deficiency Act, but like all federal employees deemed “essential,” court workers won’t be paid until the shutdown ends.
If the shutdown drags on, government agencies that remain open under the Anti-Deficiency Act — including the U.S. Postal Service, the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration — could fall into chaos.
In 2019, travel at LaGuardia Airport in New York was temporarily paused and other major airports experienced significant delays after unpaid air traffic controllers called in sick to work on the 35th day of that federal shutdown. SFGate reported at the time that Bay Area airports were largely unaffected. TSA workers at SFO are not federal employees.
Not long after the air traffic controllers’ sickout, Trump backed a stopgap spending bill to end that shutdown amid mounting pressure. It’s hard to know how long this one could last.
Despite Republican control of Congress and the White House, federal agency websites are blaming Democrats for the disruption. On the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s homepage, a banner reads: “The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government. HUD will use available resources to help Americans in need.”
Democrats refused to sign a Republican-led spending plan for the new fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 in order to try to force the restoration of health care subsidies through the Affordable Care Act, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
On Tuesday, both Democrat and Republican-based stopgap funding plans failed in the Senate, and DeSaulnier said last-ditch negotiations in the House were unproductive after Republican members didn’t show up to negotiate.
It’s unclear if and when that might change.
“They’re not talking to us. They’re being told by the president not to talk to us,” DeSaulnier said.
In March, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and a handful of other Democrats broke with the party to pass a Republican spending bill and avoid a government shutdown — inviting pushback from leaders like Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D–N.Y.).
But it appears that now, the party is more united behind the idea that a shutdown is a rare bargaining chip with the Trump administration.
“This is the way [Trump] negotiates,” DeSaulnier said Wednesday. “And we’re not having it because every time we try, he wants more. The cost is to the American public and in this instance to the health of this country.”
KQED’s Adhiti Bandlamudi and Brian Watt contributed to this report.
To learn more about how we use your information, please read our privacy policy.